Your business either has a brand, sells other people’s brands, or both. All brands have a brand identity. It’s the sum total of the consumer’s perceptions of the brand name, the logo, the products or services that carry it or are related to it, its product packaging or service delivery – to name just a few of the elements - and they all have to be successfully related to the brand in a positive way as well as to interrelate consistently among themselves.

Very few companies have actually created their brand identity. Usually it evolves gradually through the experiences of customers and others outside the business. But that is leaving your reputation to chance - you should seize the opportunity to create your own brand identity and ensure that it has a positive consumer impact that will help your business.

Let your brand represent the benefits you provide

The first question naturally is: “How do I create a brand identity?” The answer depends on what your brand is and what it stands for. Just as a contracting business is a different type of business from a grocery store, brand values differ from one brand to another and there’s no simple answer to the question.

But there is a branding methodology that works on a practical level and will add value to any brand that has secure foundations to underpin it. Because it’s based on reality and not imagery it’s the kind of branding that has genuine and long lasting meaning for consumers – whether they’re purchasing a piece of equipment or a service.

Consumers make purchases to do something. They may want to have a better looking home or a smoother running car. They don’t actually purchase a can of paint or a mechanical service; what they’re buying is the benefit they get from the money they spend.

If you can make your brand represent this benefit by creating an appealing brand identity you’ll be adding a lot more value than if your brand simply stands for a category of product or service.

Create a link for consumers

You need the consumer to subconsciously link your brand identity with the benefits they want to experience. Start by writing a brand positioning statement. Using as few words as possible, write down everything your brand needs to stand for - your industry, your unique features, and why your offering is better than those provided by the competition. This is the basis of your desired brand identity.

Next, what is it that your customers want you to deliver to them? In just one sentence, write down precisely what it is that your customers want to get from you. ‘The healthiest fruits at reasonable prices’ and ‘A car that runs smoothly and dependably’ are ways of expressing this.

Match your business with what customers want

Remember that you’re creating your own brand identity. This means matching everything about your business with what your brand has to stand for and with what your customers want from you. Now you need to analyze your business and to be totally honest while doing it.

Go through every aspect of your business - from the premises and staff to your products/services and your promotions - and ask two questions about each:

1. Is it consistent with my desired brand positioning?

2. Is it contributing to giving my customers what they want?

In other words, you need to examine everything you are and everything that you do to ensure they are compatible with the brand identity you want to develop.

At the end of this process you’ll see where you’re doing the right thing and where things have to be changed. Like we said, you are seizing the opportunity to create your own brand identity and it’s never an easy task, nor will it happen overnight. When you’ve finished, the value added to your brand will also be added to your business and your brand identity will be working for you 24/7 and 365 days a year.

Information in this article is sourced from RAN ONE, Inc.

Smaller enterprises are at the greatest risk from fraud, particularly from within the organization. They’re the least likely to have dedicated security personnel, and most likely to lack adequate internal systems and controls to prevent fraud. You can minimize your exposure to fraud by learning how it’s perpetrated in businesses like yours. There are also policies you should put in place to prevent fraud from occurring. We’ll start with the two most common types of fraud, fake invoicing and cheating on expense accounts.

Fake invoicing

These common frauds are usually along the lines of an employee sending his own company a false invoice which is approved for payment. The employee receives payment that is thought to have gone to a legitimate supplier. The employee simply sets up a company as the fraudulent supplier, establishes a bank account for that business, and then begins sending invoices to his employer.

Frequently the employee has signature authority over the invoices that are sent, so approval is easily accomplished! It’s also possible that the employee is working corruptly with another employee to get the invoices approved. In any event, the company pays for something it never received.

There are variations to this type of fraud in which goods are actually supplied but the ‘vendor’ (the employee’s company) is overpaid for what is delivered. There are also instances where a third party colludes with the employee to overcharge for goods and refund a portion of the price to the employee.

Expense account frauds

In any business there are likely to be a number of employees with the authority to incur expenses on behalf of the company for which they will be reimbursed. These can vary from insignificant amounts, such as for postage and stationery items, all the way up to airfares and accommodation costs for sales staff.

Expense account cheating usually takes the form of wrongly describing the expense incurred or overstating it. Some expenses may have never happened, or were for personal use and not business related at all. Because it’s fairly easy these days to create ‘dummy’ invoices on a home PC, simply having a receipt doesn’t necessarily prove that expenditure actually took place. It’s also possible to copy a genuine invoice and increase the amount or change the details on it.

Well administered policies are the best defense

Fraud is difficult to prevent and often very hard to detect. The best way to combat workplace fraud in a smaller enterprise is to have suitable policies in place and to unfailingly enforce them.

To deter employees from submitting fake invoices, payments should never be made to suppliers that aren’t approved by the owner, nor should a sudden increase in the amounts purchased from any supplier be allowed to happen without a valid reason.

All suppliers should be qualified before any orders are placed with them or payments made to them. This includes having full details of ownership and trading references that verify a history for the business.

Expense account frauds aren’t easy to stop, but once again having appropriate policies and enforcing them will help reduce the possibility of fraudulent claims being submitted. The most basic policy is to pay only for expenses supported by original receipts; photocopies or reprints should never be allowed.

Review the amounts of all expenses and be alert for overcharging or duplication. Be aware of every employee’s responsibilities and their need to incur expenses to meet them. If an employee’s claims show a sudden increase, be sure to query them for the reason as quickly as possible. Experience shows that if they get away with a fraudulent claim once, they’ll almost surely try it again.

Information in this article is sourced from RAN ONE, Inc.

By Teri Milligan, QuickBooks Consulting & Implementation

In QuickBooks Pro, you can create an icon on the icon bar for any account register or form, in order to speed up your data entry.

For example, if you use your bank check register every day, you can make an icon on the icon bar that you can access quickly, every time you need it.

Here’s how

1. Open the register for which you want to make an icon.

2. Click on the “View” menu.

3. Under the view menu you will see an option that says, “Add ‘xxxx – Bank Account Name’ to icon bar”. Click on that option, then choose a picture and title for the icon, click o.k. and your done.

Now every time you want to use that register, just click on the icon.

Icons can also be made for any form you use, including invoices, sales receipts, or receive payments.

To learn more about how you can use QuickBooks in your business contact me at teri@terimilligan.com and reference Advisors On Target.

Please feel free to forward this newsletter on to anyone you think might be interested in receiving monthly tips for using QuickBooks more efficiently.

by Justin French, Perfect Integration - Small Business Computer Consultants

Viruses usually spread in one of three ways: from floppy disks and other media; from downloads off the Internet or certain websites; and from email attachments.

Although most people believe viruses usually spread via the Internet or through email, floppy disks and other storage media, like Zip disks, spread many of the most common viruses. Always scan disks and other media -- even new shrink-wrapped software -- for viruses before installing any program or opening any file. Also make sure you write-protect any disk you loan out so it can't be infected by other machines. Perfect Integration suggests storing data on pen drives instead of floppy drives. Floppy drives go bad and become de-magnetized very easily and can cost thousands of dollars to recover data from them. Perfect integration also suggests remote backup, to secure your data off-site should a disaster take place.

Although the Internet gets a bad rap as a source of viruses, you're no more likely to contract a virus from the Web than you are from packaged software. Still, scan everything you download, and update your antivirus software regularly. Perfect Integration is working with new virus software called Nod32 that will be available at the end of this month! Check your virus software subscription to see when it expires, and get a technician in today to switch you over to nod32. It runs more efficiently on older systems then Norton Antivirus. I highly recommend it!

Email is not the virus breeding ground it's made out to be, either. In fact, it's nearly impossible for a virus to be transmitted by plain-text email. Most viruses can only spread via attachments -- either rich-text email or attached applications. Using antivirus software, scan attachments from people you know, and never open attachments from people you don't. If you're a Microsoft Outlook user, you can also select security preferences that keep email-borne viruses from exploiting the close relationship between Outlook and the Windows operating system.

These precautions will minimize the risk of infecting your computer as well as keep you from spreading viruses onto others. For more information on our services, please visit our website at: www.perfectintegration.com